The Untapped Advantage
The Business Leader’s Guide to Making Data Your Most Powerful Asset
Written for the CEO, MD, COO or owner who has sat through too many meetings arguing about whose numbers are right. A practical, jargon-free guide to treating data not as a side effect of running the business, but as the asset it already is.
Enterprise or SME: the fundamentals are the same
Whether you're a growing business wondering why the numbers never quite agree, or a global organisation standing up an AI factory, the underlying challenge is the same. Data that isn't trusted can't be acted on.
I've worked at both ends of that spectrum. I've helped a one-person PMO cut a day's manual work down to five minutes, and I've led programmes saving $62M at one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies.
The thinking is the same. The scale is different.
How I can help
Which stage are you at?
Every organisation is spending money on data. The question is what level of return it's getting. There are five stages, and in my experience most businesses are stuck in the first two without realising it. These are the same five stages set out in full in The Untapped Advantage.
Improvising
Decisions run on experience and instinct. The answer to your most important question lives in one person’s spreadsheet.
Reacting
Reports exist, but teams have different numbers for the same thing. Meetings argue about whose version is right.
Standardising
Reports are trusted, but the data team is overwhelmed. Data explains past decisions rather than informing future ones.
Scaling
The data function is in planning conversations, not just reporting. Predictive analytics is starting to emerge.
Competing
Data strategy and business strategy are the same document. AI is an operating capability, not a project.
Not sure where your organisation sits?
I've been helping organisations identify where they are on the data journey, and what to do next, for over 20 years. Let's have an honest conversation.